We have no religious issue with porting an Apple app to Android. If it made sense for us to do that, we would do that. #
Apple
Apple TV Gets Its First Network TV App
Internet-delivered TV is a messy market right now, and into the fray, Apple TV has tossed a new partnership with the CW network. The CW will soon have an app on Apple TV devices that shows TV episodes the day after they air on cable. All content will be ad-supported, and no pay-TV subscription will … Read more
TiVo Android App Updated… Without Stream Support
TiVo has just refreshed its line of Android apps, with the highlight being Jellybean (4.2) support. Unfortunately, TiVo Stream capabilities remain MIA… despite Android representing greater than 50% of US smartphones and presumably frustrated MSO partners.
The complete rundown:
- Additional Away Mode functionality so that users can manage their Season Passes and ToDo Lists while on the go!
- The new TiVo tablet Browse experience
- Support for Jelly Bean (Android 4.2)
- General Bug Fixing
A TiVo Mini Alternative: TiVo Stream to Apple TV
Multiple data points had indicated a TiVo Mini launch this week… yet here we are, Miniless. As to the shifting announcement, one can only guess – perhaps TiVo’s still getting the device’s technical or marketing ducks in a row. Better yet, maybe they’re taking time to reevaluate the TiVo tax. Regardless, TiVo support seems to have confirmed the situation as we understand it:
We had to delay the release. Unfortunately we have not announced when the release was rescheduled to.
So while we wait, or perhaps in lieu of an eventual TiVo Mini purchase, by using an iPhone or iPad as an intermediary, TiVo Stream owners can already move video from TiVo to a secondary television via Apple TV. Now it is a bit of a hack and, in my experimentation, I did experience some dropped frames. But for occasional usage or those on a tight budget, here’s how you’d expand the capabilities of a TiVo Stream:
TiVo Stream Android Support… No Time Soon
We’re massive fans of the TiVo Stream. While imperfect, it truly offers the best way to beam your live and recorded television around the home…. assuming you have both a TiVo Premiere of some sort and an iDevice end-point. And so it shall remain for Android owners in the foreseeable future. RCN, a TiVo MSO partner, … Read more
Is Mailbox App Secure?
The new Mailbox app arrived to great fanfare, with promises to revolutionize the iPhone email experience by most efficiently managing messages and maintaing Inbox zero. However, unlike a typical email app, Mailbox is something more than a client that resides on your phone. Which is both a strength and a weakness. On one hand, it allows … Read more
TiVo iPad App Tells You “What To Watch”
UPDATE: The TiVo 3.0 iOS app is now live. The second screen invasion is upon us. And TiVo continues to iterate on their very fine companion app. Next up is a reformulation of content discovery. While both the TiVo Premiere and current iPad app provide curated Collections, TiVo tells me the engagement hasn’t been as significant … Read more
The Second Screen Invasion Is Upon Us
Content remains king, with television programming and mobile device interaction converging at a rapid pace. So-called “second screen” apps were everywhere at CES, integrating all sorts of functionality. And companies are clearly pumped. Heck, Cisco & Cox invited Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman in to witness the unveiling of their upcoming iPad app.
In conjunction with CES festivities, I was invited to the 2nd Screen Summit — “a deep-dive into the latest business opportunities, creative case studies and technology innovations related to the creation of supplementary, synchronized and social TV content featuring speakers from Hollywood, Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley.” Given a tight schedule, I was only able to attend the keynote and a discussion of content discovery via the second screen… which quite frequently wandered well beyond the confines of a tablet device, once again reinforcing content consumption interconnectedness. And, with my somewhat irreverent style, I fired off several “second screen” tweets of my own from the sessions (reproduced below).